THE owners of new Irish pub Biddy Walsh’s are confident they can shake-off the bad reputation of the building’s former hotel the Standard with a family orientated focus.
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After more than three years laying dormant, the building will reopen on Wednesday with a new hotel and a new concept that will leave behind the Standard’s late night trading days, according to owners Helen and Glyn Daunt.
“We’ll open in the morning and close at 12:30 at night [on weekends],” Mr Daunt said.
“A lot of people move on at 12am and late night trading just gets too messy.
“We concentrating it around food the previous guy [licensee] was concentrated around late night trading.”
Together with business partners Peter and Shannon Barrett, the Daunts have operated Jack Duggan’s Irish Pub in Bathurst for almost five years.
Like the Bathurst hotel, Biddy Walsh’s is also named after a famous Irish/Australian - the wife of bushranger Ben Hall.
“He was Orange’s biggest bushranger,” Mrs Daunt said.
“We wanted to do the same concept as Bathurst, but have a separate identity.
“Biddy is quite a derogatory term in Ireland ... it’s a bit like calling someone sheila in Australia.”
The new hotel will offer Irish and Australian cuisine for lunch and dinner seven days a week, and entertainment on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.
Unlike its Bathurst counterpart it will also have a wine bar specialising in Orange wine and an upstairs function area to seat 150 people.
Mr Daunt said the hotel will join the Orange Liquor Accord and already had a good relationship with the licensing officer.
“We’ve got a very good track record,” he said.
The hotel has employed 10 Orange staff from 150 job applications, but may employ more if its popularity grows.
“We’re not targeting any particular demographic, in Bathurst we tend to get a lot of families,” Mrs Daunt said.
“We’ve built the sort of pub we’d like.”
The couple is confident the business will be able to compete in the Orange hotel market.
“From what we’ve seen on Saturday night everything is booked out,” Mrs Daunt said.
“There is room for another place without hurting anyone else.”
The hotel’s licensee/manager will be former Jack Duggan’s manager Thomas Fox.
